How to Prevent Frozen Pipes in Your Brooklyn or Queens Home

Before You Start

Over 37 years in this trade. The majority of my frozen pipe calls come from one-family and two-family houses in Brooklyn and Queens with backyards. Every single winter. Same houses. Same pipes.

Almost every one of those calls was preventable. The homeowner left a garden hose connected to the outdoor spigot. That's it. That's the call. A thirty-dollar hose connector causes a thousand-dollar pipe burst because nobody walked outside in October and unscrewed it.

This guide is for homeowners. If you're in an apartment building, your super handles most of this. If you own your house - in Bensonhurst, Howard Beach, Middle Village, East New York, anywhere - keep reading.

When to do this: Watch your 10-day weather forecast starting in late October. When you see nighttime temperatures dropping toward freezing — that's your window. Late October or early November, before the first real freeze. Not December. Not "when it gets cold." Do it before it matters.

Step 1: Disconnect Every Outdoor Hose

This is the single most important step. Do this first. Do it now if you haven't already.

Walk outside and disconnect every garden hose from every outdoor faucet (also called a hose bib or spigot). Even if the hose is empty. Even if it's a "frost-free" faucet.

Here's why: frost-free hose bibs have a long stem that holds the shutoff valve inside the heated wall, away from the freeze. That design works - but only if there's nothing attached to the end. When a hose is connected, water sits in the faucet body and freezes anyway. The frost-free design is completely defeated.

Disconnect the hose. Drain it. Store it.

NYC tip: In areas near the water - Rockaway Beach, Broad Channel, Bay Ridge waterfront, Gerritsen Beach - your pipes have extra exposure. The wind off the water drives cold deeper into walls and soil than most of Queens or Brooklyn. Disconnect hoses early and add extra insulation to any pipe running through an exterior wall or unheated space.

Step 2: Install Outdoor Faucet Covers

After disconnecting hoses, cap every outdoor faucet with an insulated faucet cover. These are foam cups that fit over the hose bib and create a dead-air insulating layer around the faucet.

They cost $5-8 at any hardware store. They take thirty seconds to install. I've seen their absence cost homeowners $800 in emergency repairs.

Turn the outdoor shutoff valve off from inside the house if you have one - typically found in the basement near where the pipe exits the foundation. Then open the outdoor faucet to drain residual water before putting the cap on.

Step 3: Check Your Outdoor Hose Bib and Shutoff Valve

This is where real freeze prevention happens. Pipe insulation foam — the stuff people wrap around pipes — doesn't work. It's a waste of money. What actually prevents frozen pipes is proper valve and drain infrastructure.

Check whether your outdoor hose bib is a freezeless (frost-free) model or a standard hose bib. Either way, what matters is: does it have a shutoff valve inside the house, and does that shutoff have a hose drain (a small valve or cap on the indoor side that lets you drain residual water from the line)?

Here's what to do:

Go inside and find the shutoff valve for the outdoor hose bib — usually in the basement near where the pipe exits the foundation wall

Close that shutoff valve

Open the hose drain on the indoor side (if one exists) to let any remaining water drain out

Go outside and open the hose bib to release any trapped water

If you don't have an indoor shutoff valve for your outdoor hose bib, that's a conversation to have with a plumber before winter. The shutoff and drain are the real protection. Without them, you're relying on luck.

NYC tip: Pre-war houses in Brooklyn — built before 1930 — often have minimal wall insulation and pipes running through exterior walls that were never meant to see modern heating costs. If you have a spot that freezes every single year, consider calling a plumber to reroute that pipe through an interior wall. A recurring freeze spot is telling you something. Listen to it.

Step 4: Check Your Boiler and Radiators

Cold upper floors mean pipes in exterior walls are more vulnerable. Before heating season starts, check your system.

If you have steam heat: Steam radiators are never bled — that's a common misconception. What you need to check are the air valves (the small vents on the radiator body) and the shutoff valves before the radiator. The air valve must open to let air escape when steam enters, then close when steam arrives. If the air valve is stuck, painted shut, or hissing constantly, that radiator won't heat properly. Replace the air valve. Also make sure the shutoff valve before the radiator is fully open — on steam systems, it's all or nothing, fully open or fully closed, never partially open.

Most NYC homes with steam have one-pipe systems — steam goes up and condensate drains back down through the same pipe. Some have two-pipe systems with a separate return line. If you're not sure which you have, look at the radiator: one pipe connection means one-pipe, two connections means two-pipe. Each type has different maintenance needs.

If you have a hot water system: These radiators do need to be bled at the start of the season. Open the bleed valve on each radiator to release trapped air until water flows steadily. Air pockets in a hot water system prevent circulation and leave radiators cold.

Don't block radiators with furniture, curtains, or decorative covers. I've seen homeowners build wood boxes around cast iron radiators and wonder why half their house is freezing. The heat has to go somewhere.

Step 5: Know Where Your Main Shutoff Is

If a pipe does freeze and burst, your first move is the main water shutoff. Know where it is before you need it. For most Brooklyn and Queens houses it's in the basement near the front wall, where the water main enters from the street.

Your domestic water service piping may have multiple valves: a primary valve, a secondary valve, and in older homes sometimes a lead valve at the street connection. Know which ones you have and where they are.

> CRITICAL WARNING: If the main shutoff valve is as old as the house, the house is 40 or more years old, and nobody has touched that valve in decades — do not touch it under any circumstances. These old valves can break, seize, or fail when turned, creating a much bigger emergency than the one you're trying to stop. Call a licensed plumber. They have the tools and experience to deal with a valve that hasn't moved in 40 years. Forcing it yourself can snap the valve body, strip the stem, or crack the pipe — and then you have an uncontrolled water flow with no way to stop it.

NYC tip: In pre-1965 homes, the pipe running from the street may be lead. You often don't discover this until a pipe bursts and needs replacement. NYC has a lead service line replacement program — worth looking into before a burst forces the conversation.

When to Call a Plumber

Call immediately if:

You turn on a faucet and nothing comes out in the middle of winter — that's a frozen pipe

You see flooding coming from inside walls, ceilings, or floors — a pipe froze, then thawed, and the rupture is now pouring water

You see water stains appear after a freeze event

A pipe has already burst

Do not use an open flame on a frozen pipe yourself. You can start a fire inside a wall cavity. A plumber uses controlled heat and knows how to thaw without creating a second problem.

The math is simple: thirty minutes in late October costs almost nothing. The emergency call in January — after hours, in a snowstorm, water pouring through a burst pipe — runs multiple hundreds of dollars, and can run into the thousands. Don't put yourself in that position.

Send me a photo of the issue — I can often give you a ballpark price or tell you what to do before I even arrive.

Do the October walkthrough. Disconnect the hoses. Cap the faucets. Check your shutoff valves.